Background and aims Wastewater‐based epidemiology is an additional indicator of drug use that is gaining reliability to complement the current established panel of indicators. The aims of this study were to: (i) assess spatial and temporal trends of population‐normalized mass loads of benzoylecgonine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in raw wastewater over 7 years (2011–17); (ii) address overall drug use by estimating the average number of combined doses consumed per day in each city; and (iii) compare these with existing prevalence and seizure data. Design Analysis of daily raw wastewater composite samples collected over 1 week per year from 2011 to 2017. Setting and Participants Catchment areas of 143 wastewater treatment plants in 120 cities in 37 countries. Measurements Parent substances (amphetamine, methamphetamine and MDMA) and the metabolites of cocaine (benzoylecgonine) and of Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol (11‐nor‐9‐carboxy‐Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol) were measured in wastewater using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Daily mass loads (mg/day) were normalized to catchment population (mg/1000 people/day) and converted to the number of combined doses consumed per day. Spatial differences were assessed world‐wide, and temporal trends were discerned at European level by comparing 2011–13 drug loads versus 2014–17 loads. Findings Benzoylecgonine was the stimulant metabolite detected at higher loads in southern and western Europe, and amphetamine, MDMA and methamphetamine in East and North–Central Europe. In other continents, methamphetamine showed the highest levels in the United States and Australia and benzoylecgonine in South America. During the reporting period, benzoylecgonine loads increased in general across Europe, amphetamine and methamphetamine levels fluctuated and MDMA underwent an intermittent upsurge. Conclusions The analysis of wastewater to quantify drug loads provides near real‐time drug use estimates that globally correspond to prevalence and seizure data.

OATAO is an open access repository that collects the work of Toulouse researchers and makes it freely available over the web where possible. This is an author-deposited version published in : http://oatao.univ-toulouse.fr/ Eprints ID : 15973 Abstract Chlordecone (CLD) was an organochlorine insecticide whose previous use resulted in an extensive pollution of the environment with severe health effects and social consequences. A closely related compound, 5b-hydrochlordecone (5b-hydroCLD), has been searched for and often detected in environmental matrices from the geographical area where CLD was applied. The current consensus considered that its presence was not the result of a biotic or abiotic dechlorination of CLD in these matrices but rather the consequence of its presence as impurity (synthesis by-product) in the CLD released into the environment. The aim of the present study was to determine if and to what extent degradation of CLD into 5b-hydroCLD occurred in the field. To test this hypothesis, the ratios of 5b-hydroCLD and CLD concentrations in a dataset of 810 soils collected between 2006 and 2012 in Martinique were compared to the ratios measured in 3 samples of the CLD dust commercial formulations applied in the banana fields of French West Indies (FWI) and 1 sample of the technical-grade CLD corresponding to the active ingredient used in such formulations. Soil data were processed with a hierarchical Bayesian model to account for random measurement errors and data censoring. Any pathway of CLD transformation into 5b-hydroCLD occurring over the long term in FWI soils would indeed change the ratio of 5b-hydroCLD/ CLD compared to what it was in the initially applied formulations. Results showed a significant increase of the 5b-hydroCLD/CLD ratio in the soils-25 times greater in soil than in commercial formulations-which suggested that natural CLD transformation into 5b-hydroCLD over the long term occurred in these soils. Results from this study may impact future decisions for the remediation of the polluted areas.

Contamination of man and ecosystems by pesticides has become a major environmental concern. Whereas many studies exist on contamination from agriculture, the effects of urban sources are usually omitted. Fluvial sediment is a complex matrix of pollutants but little is known of its recent herbicide content. This study proposes a method for a fast and reliable analysis of herbicides by employing the accelerated solvent extractor (ASE). The aim of the study is to show the impact of a major town (Toulouse) on the herbicide content in the river. In this study, three herbicide families (i.e.s-triazine, substituted ureas and anilides) were analysed in fluvial sediment fractions at 11 sampling sites along the mid-Garonne River and its tributaries. River water contamination by herbicides is minor, except for at three sites located in urban areas. Among the herbicidal families studied, urban and suburban areas are distinguished from rural areas and were found to be the most contaminated sites during the study period, a winter low-water event. The herbicide content of the coarse sediment fractions is about one third of that found in the fine fractions and usually ignored. The distribution of pesticide concentrations across the whole range of particle sizes was investigated to clarify the role of plant remains on the significant accumulation in the coarse fractions.

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